Shohei Higashi

Shohei Higashi (1918-7 December 1941) was the navigator of an Imperial Japanese Navy midget submarine during the Attack on Pearl Harbor. On 7 December 1941, Higashi and Sadakuno Akagi were the first two Japanese servicemen to be killed in hostile action by the United States during World War II.

Biography
Shohei Higashi was born in 1918 in Kure, Japan, and he enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1937. Higashi was sent to crew a submarine attached to the Combined Fleet, and he was sent to be the navigator for a midget submarine commanded by Sadakuno Akagi. On 7 December 1941, their midget submarine was launched from the larger submarine, and Higashi was told to follow USS Ward into Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where the US Navy base was located. The Ward discovered the midget sub, however, and it sunk it with a depth charge. Higashi and Akagi were the first two Japanese casualties of the Pacific War against the United States.